Contents

1 Physical Layer (Layer 1)................................................................................................................................. 2

2 Medium Access Layer (MAC)......................................................................................................................... 2
3 Radio Link Control (RLC)................................................................................................................................ 3
4 Radio Resource Control (RRC) ...................................................................................................................... 3
5 Packet Data Convergence Control (PDCP) .................................................................................................. 3
6 Non Access Stratum (NAS) Protocols .......................................................................................................... 3
8.1 Logical Channels .............................................................................................................................................. 5
8.2 Transport Channels ......................................................................................................................................... 6
8.3 Physical Channels ............................................................................................................................................ 7
8.3.1 Physical data channels ...................................................................................................................... 7
8.3.2 Physical Control Channels ............................................................................................................... 8
1 Let's have a close look at all the layers available in E-UTRAN Protocol Stack which we have
seen in previous chapter. Below is a more ellaborated diagram of E-UTRAN Protocol Stack:

1Physical Layer (Layer 1)

Physical Layer carries all information from the MAC transport channels over the air interface.
Takes care of the link adaptation (AMC), power control, cell search (for initial synchronization
and handover purposes) and other measurements (inside the LTE system and between systems)
for the RRC layer.

2 Medium Access Layer (MAC)

MAC layer is responsible for Mapping between logical channels and transport channels,
Multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or different logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to
be delivered to the physical layer on transport channels, de multiplexing of MAC SDUs from
one or different logical channels from transport blocks (TB) delivered from the physical layer
 on transport channels, Scheduling information reporting, Error correction through HARQ,
Priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling, Priority handling between
logical channels of one UE, Logical Channel prioritization.

3 Radio Link Control (RLC)

RLC operates in 3 modes of operation: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM),
and Acknowledged Mode (AM).

RLC Layer is responsible for transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ (Only
for AM data transfer), Concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs (Only for
UM and AM data transfer).

RLC is also responsible for re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs (Only for AM data transfer),
reordering of RLC data PDUs (Only for UM and AM data transfer), duplicate detection (Only
for UM and AM data transfer), RLC SDU discard (Only for UM and AM data transfer), RLC re-
establishment, and protocol error detection (Only for AM data transfer).

4 Radio Resource Control (RRC)

The main services and functions of the RRC sublayer include broadcast of System Information
related to the non-access stratum (NAS), broadcast of System Information related to the
access stratum (AS), Paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection
between the UE and E-UTRAN, Security functions including key management, establishment,
configuration, maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers.

5 Packet Data Convergence Control (PDCP)

PDCP Layer is responsible for Header compression and decompression of IP data, Transfer of
data (user plane or control plane), Maintenance of PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), In-
sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, Duplicate
elimination of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers mapped
on RLC AM, Ciphering and deciphering of user plane data and control plane data, Integrity
protection and integrity verification of control plane data, Timer based discard, duplicate
discarding, PDCP is used for SRBs and DRBs mapped on DCCH and DTCH type of logical
channels.

6 Non Access Stratum (NAS) Protocols

The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols form the highest stratum of the control plane
between the user equipment (UE) and MME.

NAS protocols support the mobility of the UE and the session management procedures to
establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE and a PDN GW.
7 Below is a logical digram of E-UTRAN Protocol layers with a depiction of data
flow through various layers:

Packets received by a layer are called Service Data Unit (SDU) while the packet
output of a layer is referred to by Protocol Data Unit (PDU). Let's see the flow of
data from top to bottom:

IP Layer submits PDCP SDUs (IP Packets) to the PDCP layer. PDCP layer does header compression
and adds PDCP header to these PDCP SDUs. PDCP Layer submits PDCP PDUs (RLC SDUs) to RLC
layer.

PDCP Header Compression : PDCP removes IP header (Minimum 20 bytes) from PDU, and adds
Token of 1-4 bytes. Which provides a tremendous savings in the amount of header that would
otherwise have to go over the air.
 RLC layer does segmentation of these SDUS to make the RLC PDUs. RLC adds header based on
RLC mode of operation. RLC submits these RLC PDUs (MAC SDUs) to the MAC layer.

RLC Segmentation : If an RLC SDU is large, or the available radio data rate is low (resulting in
small transport blocks), the RLC SDU may be split among several RLC PDUs. If the RLC SDU is
small, or the available radio data rate is high, several RLC SDUs may be packed into a single PDU.

MAC layer adds header and does padding to fit this MAC SDU in TTI. MAC layer submits MAC PDU
to physical layer for transmitting it onto physical channels.

Physical channel transmits this data into slots of sub frame.

8 The information flows between the different protocols are known as channels and
signals. LTE uses several different types of logical, transport and physical channel,
which are distinguished by the kind of information they carry and by the way in
which the information is processed.

Logical Channels : Define whattype of information is transmitted over the air, e.g. traffic
channels, control channels, system broadcast, etc. Data and signalling messages are carried on
logical channels between the RLC and MAC protocols.

Transport Channels : Define howis something transmitted over the air, e.g. what are encoding,
interleaving options used to transmit data. Data and signalling messages are carried on transport
channels between the MAC and the physical layer.

Physical Channels : Define whereis something transmitted over the air, e.g. first N symbols in
the DL frame. Data and signalling messages are carried on physical channels between the
different levels of the physical layer.

8.1 Logical Channels

Logical channels define what type of data is transferred. These channels define the
data-transfer services offered by the MAC layer. Data and signalling messages are
carried on logical channels between the RLC and MAC protocols.
Logical channels can be divided into control channels and traffic channels. Control
Channel can be either common channel or dedicated channel. A common channel
means common to all users in a cell (Point to multipoint) while dedicated channels
means channels can be used only by one user (Point to Point).

Logical channels are distinguished by the information they carry and can be
classified in two ways. Firstly, logical traffic channels carry data in the user plane,
while logical control channels carry signalling messages in the control plane.
Following table lists the logical channels that are used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Control Traffic

channel channel

Broadcast Control Channel BCCH X

Paging Control Channel PCCH X

Common Control Channel CCCH X

Dedicated Control Channel DCCH X

Multicast Control Channel MCCH X

Dedicated Traffic Channel DTCH X

Multicast Traffic Channel MTCH X

8.2 Transport Channels

Transport channels define how and with what type of characteristics the data is
transferred by the physical layer. Data and signalling messages are carried on
transport channels between the MAC and the physical layer.

Transport Channels are distinguished by the ways in which the transport channel
processor manipulates them. Following table lists the transport channels that are
used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Broadcast Channel BCH X

Downlink Shared Channel DL-SCH X

Paging Channel PCH X

Multicast Channel MCH X

Uplink Shared Channel UL-SCH X

Random Access Channel RACH X

8.3 Physical Channels

Data and signalling messages are carried on physical channels between the
different levels of the physical layer and accordingly they are divided into two
parts:

Physical Data Channels

Physical Control Channels

8.3.1 Physical data channels

Physical data channels are distinguished by the ways in which the physical channel
processor manipulates them, and by the ways in which they are mapped onto the
symbols and sub-carriers used by Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
(OFDMA). Following table lists the physical data channels that are used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Physical downlink shared PDSCH X

channel

Physical broadcast channel PBCH X

Physical multicast channel PMCH X

Physical uplink shared channel PUSCH X

Physical random access channel PRACH X

The transport channel processor composes several types of control information,
to support the low-level operation of the physical layer. These are listed in the
below table:

Field Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Downlink control information DCI X

Control format indicator CFI X

Hybrid ARQ indicator HI X

Uplink control information UCI X

8.3.2 Physical Control Channels

The transport channel processor also creates control information that supports the
low-level operation of the physical layer and sends this information to the physical
channel processor in the form of physical control channels.

The information travels as far as the transport channel processor in the receiver,
but is completely invisible to higher layers. Similarly, the physical channel
processor creates physical signals, which support the lowest-level aspects of the
system.

Physical Control Channels are listed in the below table:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Physical control format indicator PCFICH X

channel

Physical hybrid ARQ indicator PHICH X

channel

Physical downlink control channel PDCCH X

Relay physical downlink control R-PDCCH X

channel

Physical uplink control channel PUCCH X

The base station also transmits two other physical signals, which help the mobile
acquire the base station after it first switches on. These are known as the primary
synchronization signal (PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS).